2016-17 Yale Men's Cross Country News

The men's cross country team was named as the recipient of an NCAA All-Academic Team award today, and senior James Randon also claimed an NCAA All-Academic Individual award. The awards are given out at the conclusion of each season to teams and individual athletes who compete at the highest level both in the classroom and on the cross country course.

The Ivy League recently announced its fall Academic All-Ivy selections and 10 Bulldogs were honored. All were starters or key reserves on an officially recognized varsity team with 3.0 or better cumulative grade point averages. Each Ivy institution nominated five men and five women from its eligible student-athletes.

The Yale men's cross country team officially ended their 2016 season near the end of the fall semester with the annual team banquet. The athletes selected their next captain at this event, choosing junior Adam Houston to lead the team in 2017.

Senior James Randon of the Yale men's cross country team competed in the last race of his collegiate cross country career on Saturday. The meet was the NCAA Division I Championships, which Randon qualified to for the first time this season. In a race that drew 251 of the top college runners from across the country, Randon placed 114th, with a time of 30:58.1.

After a historic career with the Yale men’s cross country team, senior James Randon will run his final cross country race for the Elis on Saturday. As team captain, he led the athletes in many big races throughout the year, consistently finishing as the fastest athlete on the team. Now, however, he will race alone as an individual qualifier to the NCAA National Cross Country Championships. This meet brings together the top 31 teams and 39 additional outstanding individuals in Division I to compete for the NCAA title.

On Friday, the Yale men's cross country team raced at the NCAA Northeast Regional Championships. Senior James Randon placed fifth and led the team to a ninth-place finish (313 pts.) against a strong field. Six Elis competed, including three athletes who had never before competed in a collegiate 10-kilometer race.

Senior James Randon earned All-Region honors for the second year in a row on Friday. In 2015, Randon placed 23rd at the NCAA Northeast Regional Championships. The award is given to the top 25 finishers at each of the NCAA Regional Championships, so Randon made the cutoff with two places to spare last year. On Friday, however, Randon easily finished in the top 25, placing fifth with a 25-second personal best.

On Friday, the men’s cross country team will head to Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx to compete at the NCAA Northeast Regional Championships. Senior team captain James Randon will almost certainly lead the team at this meet, as he seeks to earn a bid to the NCAA National Championships. In order to qualify as a team, the Elis must either finish in the top two teams or be selected as one of 13 additional teams from across the country, according to the NCAA.

The Yale men’s cross country team wrapped up the Ivy League portion of the 2016 cross country season with a strong showing at the Ivy League Championships on Saturday. Senior captain James Randon won the meet in what was arguably the strongest race of his collegiate cross country career thus far.

Senior James Randon of the Yale men's cross country team earned First-Team All-Ivy honors for his performance at the Ivy League Cross Country Championships on Saturday. While he received this award last year for his fifth-place finish at Ivies, it takes on a greater significance this year, as Randon placed first.

The Yale men’s cross country team heads to the Ivy League Cross Country Championships on Saturday. After a third-place finish last year where the Elis beat Cornell in a tiebreak and scored just 10 points behind the first-place team, this should be an exciting race for the Bulldogs.

Last Thursday, one of the most prominent alums from the Yale cross country and track and field programs returned to Coxe Cage to speak to the current team’s athletes. Kate Grace ‘11 described her winding journey from a collegiate athlete at Yale to the eighth-place finisher in the 800-meter run at the 2016 Olympics. In a conversation that lasted a little under an hour, Grace took numerous questions from the student-athletes and coaches and offered tips about what helped her achieve such remarkable success.

In the final regular season race of the 2016 season, the Elis sent seven athletes to the CCSU Mini Meet hosted by Central Connecticut State University on Friday. These athletes raced the five-kilometer course against many local competitors and finished third as a team with 106 points, behind Boston University (40 pts.) and CCSU (66 pts.). Many of the Bulldogs raced close together, with less than 12 seconds separating the Elis' first and fifth finishers.

On Friday, some athletes on the Yale men’s cross country team will run their last race of the 2016 season. The CCSU Mini Meet, hosted by Central Connecticut State University in New Britain, Conn., is a five-kilometer race historically occurring the week before the Ivy League Heptagonal Championships.

On Saturday, senior captain James Randon led the Yale men’s cross country team in its best race of the season thus far at the Princeton Invite. The athletes demonstrated tremendous strength and growth, with six setting personal bests of more than 20 seconds and two additional athletes running season bests. Randon won the race, while the team placed second overall with 104 points.

On Saturday, the Yale men’s cross country team will race its final eight-kilometer race before the Ivy League Championships. The Elis will run at the Princeton Invitational, where they will have the opportunity to compete against many of the teams they will face at the Ivy League or NCAA Northeast Regional Championships. This meet could be used to help set the roster for the championship season and will give us a glimpse of how the Bulldogs might perform against their strongest competitors in the coming weeks.

The Yale men’s cross country team raced at the New England Championships on Saturday. This meet draws a mix of schools, large and small, for an eight-kilometer race at Boston’s Franklin Field. The team finished 13th, with a small, six-person team, led by freshman Peter Ryan in his first collegiate race. Northeastern won the meet, while Brown took a close second.

The Yale men’s cross country team heads to Boston on Saturday for the New England Championships. Because this meet has historically fallen in the middle of the team’s racing season, it provides opportunities to measure progress and allows athletes to race who may not have gotten a spot at the more competitive Notre Dame Invite last weekend.

The Yale men’s cross country team heads back from Indiana after racing on Friday at the Notre Dame Invitational. This meet drew teams from across the country and as expected, provided strong competition for the Elis. The fastest times in the race were among the best collegiate times run so far this season.

The Yale men’s cross country team heads to South Bend, Ind., on Friday to compete at the Notre Dame Invitational. This meet attracts athletes from across the country, including seven teams currently ranked in the USTFCCCA’s Top-30 Division I Poll. The Bulldogs will only be able to enter nine athletes in the main race, so this meet will likely highlight the top runners on the team and provide insights into who will make the team’s top seven when the championship season begins in about a month.

The Yale men’s cross country team raced in its first Ivy League competition of the 2016 season on Saturday. With a strong push in the last third of the race, senior James Randon won the eight-kilometer race. Two freshmen also finished in the team’s top five, showing the strength of the class and their ability to immediately contribute to the team’s success. The Elis placed second in the meet with 49 points, beating the Crimson (55 points), but falling short of defeating the Princeton Tigers (23 points).

The Yale men’s cross country team will head to Princeton on Saturday to compete at the Harvard/Yale/Princeton Tri-Meet. After many athletes ran personal bests last week at the Fordham Fiasco, the team is looking to put down some strong performances against its historic rivals this week. All three teams have lost two of their seven top scorers from 2015, including three of the overall top five finishers.

The men’s cross country team opened the 2016 season with a first-place finish at the Fordham Fiasco on Saturday. The team, led by junior Hale Ross, placed all five scorers in the top 10 and totalled just 27 points. The Elis' group of runners included four freshmen competing in their first collegiate race, as well as nine upperclassmen, many of whom set personal bests.

The Yale men’s cross country team heads to the Bronx on Saturday for the first race of the 2016 season. The team will be competing in the Fordham Fiasco, a five-mile race hosted by Fordham University at Van Cortlandt Park. The meet will provide valuable experience for all the athletes who race, especially because Van Cortlandt Park will also be the site of the NCAA Northeast Regional Championships later this season.

After marking the team’s best performance at the Ivy League Championships since 2003 last year, building and improving on this strong finish will likely be on the minds of 2016 men’s cross country team. Lead by Head Coach Paul Harkins and captain James Randon, the team is set to begin competing in just a couple weeks. This season promises a mix of historic meets and races that none of the athletes on the team have raced before, as well as a combination of new talent and seasoned upperclassmen.